##VIDEO ID:kD0r6rVUQlA## okay we'll call it January 27th 2025 meeting to order I'll stand for the pledge alance to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all make a motion to adopt tonight's agenda second motion's been made and second all those in favor I I motion carries uh presentation uh Sheriff's Office good evening mayor and councel uh December we had a total of 39 93 calls for service which was our slowest month uh since March of last year we had seven thefts three damage to property calls and we responded to 37 traffic crashes of varying severity made a total of 25 arrests for miscellaneous offenses conducted 114 traffic stops which resulted in 25 traffic citations on our roads uh a few of our notable calls last month on the 5th of December at 9:32 p.m. uh Deputy Aline stopped a vehicle vle at Highway 65 and 237th Avenue Northeast as he recognized the driver from prior contacts and believed that the driver's license was still cancelled uh he did affect a traffic stop and spoke to that driver and confirmed that the driver was who he thought that person was and verified that his license status was indeed canceled he arrested the driver and transported him to jail where he was charged with a gross misdem meter offense the driving after cancellation and mical to Public Safety at 1:45 p.m. on the 8th of December Deputy Martinez stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation at 65 and 181st after speaking with the driver he learned that the driver's license was revoked but that the driver had been cited five different times over the last several months so to prevent any further criminal conduct Deputy Martinez made the decision to make a custodial arrest on that driver while conducting a custodial search of the driver's person he located two small bagg of a white crystalin substance in the driver's clothing that later field tested positive for the presence of methamphetamine the driver was booked into the county jail and charged with possession of a controlled substance on the 20th of December at 9:42 p.m Deputy Johnson was near Jamestown Street in Viking Boulevard Northeast investigating a complaint of a possible drunk driver in the area Deputy Johnson located that vehicle pulling in and out of driveways along Viking Boulevard and eventually stopped it for another traffic violation while speaking with the driver Deputy Johnson noted signs of impairment consistent with recent alcohol consumption he then had the driver step out to perform standardized field sobriety testing but the driver ultimately refused so at the conclusion of uh the attempts that this driver made to perform those tests the deputies advised the driver that he was under arrest for DWI uh at which point the driver resisted arrest and subsequently kicked our Deputy in the face causing some swelling in a small abrasion underneath his cheek driver was detained and later transported to the Sheriff's Office where he refused any additional testing the driver was transported to jail and booked on DWI refusal and assault on our on our Deputy finally on the 30th of December deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 400 block of 196 Lane on a report of a male trying to break into that house on arrival depu is located a male climbing through a broken window on near the garage deputies detained the mail before he got into the structure and noticed that he was heavily intoxicated the mail was extremely confused and believed that he was the owner of that residence M was arrested and transported to jail where he was booked into the facility on charges of trespassing and damage to property so um it was a slower month but some of our calls were a little bit more labor intensive for us to to investigate from start to finish so to put things in perspective we had a total of 5,000 and 127 calls for service um comparing that to 2023 um which our total there was 4,797 so our burglaries and thefts were down which was good to see but our type one offenses which were the assaults and damage to property uh offenses were were up there we saw an increase in traffic crashes we also saw an increase in our traffic stops and traffic citations so it was nice to see some proactive enforcement out there throughout the year um so hopefully those things will continue to Trend down in 2025 here so um on behalf of everyone at the sheriff's office I hope we're having a good start to 2025 and um we'll see you next month so I'll stand for any questions if anybody has anything anybody have any questions I actually have a question and first I want to thank everybody for what they do because I really appreciate your presence in East bethl but would you by any chance know or maybe you could come back with uh statistics from surrounding communities if we're higher lower anything like that cuz I'm really curious if Oak Gro St Francis hamlake um Columbus if any if there's stuff if there's increasing or decreasing if it's all moving out to the rural areas or if it's just East Ral yeah I can certainly do that the only caveat to that or a limitation would be population um some of some of our areas here in the city are a little bit more densely populated and other areas are very rural and sparse so u i could I can make a comparative analysis based on population I'd appreciate it thank you any other questions from the public anybody thank you thank you fire department good evening mayor council members uh this is our December fire department report along with the end of the year report for the month of December the fire department responded to 86 calls for service we responded to 66 Medicals six accidents and six alarms um then for the year for 2024 we the fire department responded to 1,31 calls for service that was compared to 962 calls for um 20 23 as of 15 minutes ago we have responded to 73 calls so far this year compared with 72 in last year um now I'm going to sum of the numbers from last year um like I said last year 2024 we had a total of 1,31 calls of those 69 169 of those were duty officer calls then we uh total day calls so we have day calls on station one and station three they're combined throughout the day but then at nights or on weekends they get separated so there's there's going to be some difference in numbers here so station one day calls and three there was 400 they were responsible for 473 calls they have to do uh 30% of that so they have to do about 400 or 14 41 calls station two they calls they're responsible for 467 calls so they have to do about 140 calls that's to do their 30% all of our firefighters do above 30% they're right around 35 to 40% total night calls so station one and three are combined and then station two is off by itself station one and three they did were responsible for 298 calls 30% of that is 90 calls and Station 2 was responsible for 252 calls and 30% of that was 76 calls so our total year in review of 1,31 calls 752 were Medicals 14 Mutual Aid calls 26 total fires 66 pis or accidents 46 alarms uh 44 smoke in the area or illegal Burns and 83 other calls and so uh call breakdown so this is calls from 8 or 5 500 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday there's 344 calls there like I said the duty officer did 169 calls night all calls where just the night people get paged out they got PID sh for 18 of those a Station 1 and three weekend calls 115 Station 1 and three Night Calls 151 station two week weekend calls 109 station two Night Calls 111 and 14 in all calls that is the breakdown of that um with that being said there's some firefighters I'd like to recognize um we have um three firefighters that are our top responders so our day top responder is Richard Williams and Richard's been on the department 44 years and like I said he goes to roughly 65% of the day call and that our station one and three nighttime responders and this is only during their shift it does not count their duty officer calls or calls they respond to other stations uh District Chief Wade Hoffman he responded to he was the most highest responder for station one and three station two night responder was Captain Kyle Howard uh he beat out uh Lieutenant Nate fish by one call so and that so and that with be that being said our paid on call Firefighters are dedicated to an average of 270 hours a year that they are at the department this includes calls and training you know some calls are longer some calls are you know longer than an hour some are shorter than an hour some are only 20 minutes long and that and then um just a number as the department as a whole we responded 6,000 times with all the members combined to the number of times we responded to this station we did 6,000 times in that so that comes out to about five and a or just about six people per call that we get and with that I will answer any questions with the top callers do they get any any sort of uh a recognition or award for that stuff not right now we do not do that we you know I recognized them during the staff meeting and that and they get recognized at our uh appreciation dinner okay I was just wondering if you know just to help recognize and boost Personnel if the city could present them with say certificate of recognition for their efforts and we could do it for a council meeting just to yep we'll take that like I said we'll take that in I know we did have some plaques we were giv out at one time when we had a safer Grant and that so doesn't necessarily have to be a plaque but just something in a frame and yep no thank you for your efforts extremely appreciated yep we we'll do that next year's council member all right I have um some questions um the first one is on this report that we get um there's several that are all to the same address and some of them the same thing like um burning smoke same day listed there twice um same address um there's an alarm same address uh same day there's medical going to the same address so I'm just wondering how that has happening okay so the medical like I said we um we can go there the patient can go into the hospital or decides not to go we can't force them to a can't force them to be transported and then then they call us back again so then we respond again on the alarm uh we had a um alarm at a business the guy they were having an issue with their uh drive system so the alarm kept sounding so we finally he thought he had it fixed and then um he it sounded this I think a second time and at that time I contacted the duty officer and told him that to tell the GU tell the business owner to put it in trouble and advise the dispatch that we wouldn't be responding to any more calls then we didn't get any after that okay and so when that alarm went off twice did you send the same amount of people that we send one person during that's a duty officer call one person goes and the medical do you medical depends on who shows up okay and uh my other question is do you guys have a triage like a phone triage system where if somebody calls and they're they can really take their own self to a doctor you know um is that possible I don't even know what the law is regarding that that's why I'm asking can they take their own self to a doctor if if it's possible or do you guys always have to go if that you get that call so when they call 911 it goes into the NOA County Dispatch Center right at that time the Dispatch Center takes the initial call from there they transfer it out to Al we get we get paged out based on the information the patient gives the NOA County Dispatch Center that's what we get paged out on okay makes sense and as we're going to the call Al is getting more information and we are getting updates on that call at that time along with the deputies okay thank you yep we had the uh breakfast this last weekend and so most of us were there and it seemed really well uh how how would that go it was down from last last year I do believe they did about 240 people went through the compared to like 300 some last year but it did go Fairly good and I I would I can't say for sure because I haven't talked to the uh Danielle about if Brad had donated the food or not so I'm not for sure how they did for so okay I I think I heard that he did but yeah take that with Gran so until you confirm it yes yeah he has done in the past where he has donated food y any other questions from the public none being move on to the next item thanks Chief public form Miss gimple good evening mayor council I um I read the ABC newspaper and I guess it was at the last meeting too so things were quoted and and mayor Anderson you quoted saying that Jim Smith was toxic to the fire department and I I truly believe that you you owe Jim Smith an apology Jim Smith as far as I can see has been one of the only people that has been AIS on with the fire department even when I was on that has been trying to do things to resolve some issues with the fire department you were also quoted and saying that um Smith was Jim Smith was council member Smith was listening to a few individuals and here's the what is it a 42 Page report from um the report that was done from Capstone and in it I did did you read this yes I've got the whole document did did you guys all read it in it I mean 84% again I've been saying this felt bullied that's not what the question was excuse me that's not what the question was what question the question you're referring to the question was do do you know if there's a or do you feel if there's a bully in the fire department okay 84% felt bullied no the 84% recognized that they felt that there was a bully in the fire department okay we'll skip that one then 71% felt the department is not working as a team that's not a few individuals 67% stated they are concerned about the future of the fire department that again is not a few individuals and this a council the council before you had this report done had a report done paid $10,000 to have it done for a reason not because everything was great on the fire department so again it wasn't just a few individuals the report was done to because there was there were issues there are still issues and Jim Smith has been one of the only people that I can see that is trying to resolve some of the issues so to call him toxic is is actually it's it's disgusting I honestly think you owe him an apology a public apology um also did a policy to keep Security in certain individuals they you did up a policy last Council to keep some security and certain individuals from getting you know free reign in the fire department and um Chief sorry I want to call you Chief um mayor Anderson you are too close to the fire department I I think you know that and and it's that policy was done because of people like you and I just really hope that you recuse yourself from any matters involving the fire department you you have a lot of knowledge and your opinion very much counts and should be said but I really do hope that you do recuse yourself from some of the fire department from all the fire department matters that's all thank you all right thank you your comments are being listen to nextant D make motion to approve the consent agenda like to pull Item B as in boy and K as in kilo I also want to pull b e and G what was that Jim b g and e b g and e I'd like to pull D I'd like to pull a e f g j k l I think that's all of them yep I don't really see an L is there an L yeah there's an L it's not on my print out here it's a Hidden Prairie preliminary plaid extension oh okay y so Mr Mayor just confirm we have a b d e g k f j k and l is that correct I think it was J maybe all of them are did you get J J and in there yeah okay yeah the only ones not there are C hi i and m um was f p is there an M I don't have a m i oh that's where mine come out as a M's see when to printed out h no you're right I Chi okay they're kept uh what about F I don't remember anyone pulling F yeah yep F Suzanne did suzan I did yes oh okay takes a team um I have a motion to uh adop the consent to Gena as amended I need a second all in favor I I opposed motion passes as amended item eight um item a I want to talk about our contract with Ace I am curious I think they're overcharging us uh I just saw $1,200 for the ice arena and I know that they charge a lot for this building and I think they charge for every single fire station and every building that we've got and I'm just wondering when the last time the city has gone out and done uh price comparisons with other garbage companies Mr Mr Mayor and council member members we can certainly do that um uh what I do want to say though is the $1,200 is a is not a normal reoccurring charge we had a theft over there of a six yard container 2 yard it was a four yard four yard oh no stole the dumpster from the ice someone stole a dumpster you kidding of all the things what they're doing with it we don't know and hopefully they return it because it's a $1,200 dumpster wow but in February we're getting camera is over there so we'll see the theft next time so good idea thank you with that I'll make a motion to approve item a of the consent agenda second all those in favor I I uh opposed motion uh uh approved B I got one change on page 29 of the packet page 29 let me get page 29 and it would be on line 30 31 with the voting on that um I did not vote in favor so that should read uh um mundle nay along with Anderson nay that's so number 31 add mundel n yep that's the only correction I have okay I got page 28 line 11 it says Miller asked Miss lindall if the land form would be okay I was the one that asked for that that's the only change I had what number are we talking here number 11 page 28 where it says Miller asked should be Smith so if there's Smith asked okay so number 11 29 that's page 28 there's no other changes alterations I will make a motion to proove Item B second all those in favor I opposed motion passes D I'd like to say that um this regards the uh Parks Commission members who are being reappointed I am uh I couldn't tell you all happy and wholehearted I'm going to be for the support of these guys we've got very dedicated Parks Commission members uh it's been a true pleasure to walk alongside these in or work alongside these individuals are not only passionate about the city's Parks but they truly are committed to enhancing the quality of life for residents these members have constantly demonstrated a strong worth e ethic creativity and collaborative Spirit their efforts have significantly contributed to the betterment of our Parks making them more enjoyable and accessible for everyone in the community they are Barney Harvey they are Bill Zimmerman the Parks Commission chair and they are Mary Ellen Westland um full support for them to be back on that commission and with that make a motion to pass item D second all those in favor I opposed motion passes e item e is is me I um am interested in the first sentence on this the prior Council indicated an interest in transitioning the Eda membership over to elected officials I am wondering how we would go about doing that and what the procedure was because it seems like with two people getting off right now now is the perfect time to start but I don't know um the it said the attorney said it has to happen as terms expire so Mr Mayor I don't know if the attorney is willing to comment on this but uh we did have him look into if this were to happen how could it happen or what's legal to happen and um if he's prepared perhaps uh a quick uh executive version of how it would happen would be good otherwise we could table it if you need to Mayor um councel whether it be an H or an Eda or aort authority all commissioners of that those respective boards are appointed by the mayor with the blessing and vote of of the council the council can either accept reject or modify the mayor's appointment but at the end of the day it is the council that appoints those boards right now you have a seven member Eda a five member HRA your HRA through your enabling resolution is is um the council is the board of the HRA through enabling resolution your Eda is composed of seven members two of which have to through your enabling resolution and then also recommended by Statute have to be council members the other five can be council members or other individuals you can also decide um to to change it up at any time right now uh it's a seven member board um if you want to so so if you have two up you're right you can go ahead and replace those two if they're non-council members with council members if that is the will of the body so if I understand you're right then we can do it right now you could do it for Council Members it it it's it's it's all up to you know how you would like to uh proceeded forward generally what I've seen as far as customs and practice if you want to talk about that and I don't know what the customer practice of East bethl has been I've only been your City attorney for well 23 months to be exact so one short of a of a year of two years um but other councils they generally have these discussions at are workshop at which point they're set up to to then make the formal decision at the next council meeting but if you're ready to do so today that's fine too I'm going to make a motion to table this till our next work session after our next work session i' second that all in favor I I opposed motion passes F and that's me too if you read through F where it starts in like the third line at their January 14th 2025 meeting the park commission unanimously blah blah blah why I'm really confused at how this is reading I mean it it it's like where did this even come from I'm confused that's the same line as in the Park yeah it's like copy and pasted it from the reappointment of the park commission and so is there something missing there now Mr mayor council members that it's just a typo it should be the planning uh commission unanimously recommend and the city council consider reappointment of the following members but they list the par commission's names and not the Planning Commission names you're that's right because planning hasn't even met yet to so make new appointments for the year should we table this for a correction you want if you'd like to table this I will I'll make a motion to table it follow up with the drafter of this and make sure that we get it right sorry about that I'll second motion from made second and all in favor I got a question first I was at the Planning Commission meeting when they wanted Sharon Johnson does want to get back on us so it Brian Downey yeah I know they both too so can we just vote on them and just strike out the bottom piece that way they're they voted in that's that's who the two are up and they want to go back back in there so right I don't know what the legality is with the was was there a motion in a second I didn't quite okay uh so what if you want to do that if the Mover of the motion and the second could withdraw that motion and then you could uh council member Smith make your motion then we can just remove and and then afterwards table for the remainder of the appointments uh I I'm not trying to prejudge what you're going to do I'm just giving you a pathway thank you I make a you you'll you I'll remove my motion I remove my second okay so council member SM I'll make a motion to approve the planning Commissioners Sharon Johnson and Brian Downey for their next term second on the Planning Commission second he seconded sorry okay we have a motion second all in favor I I opposed none heard passes and then the next motion would be to uh table uh the appointment of any other remaining C uh Planning Commission members make a motion to table for the next planning commissioner that works have to advertise for it second all in favor I oppos None heard passes item G so item G I I don't know if I can table the second half of this because I'm tbling the um item e right the um part of with the Eda you can make motion to prove Gabriel the he's resigned so to to prove uh uh advertising for that for the Planning Commission uh position I and to table the appointment of the Eda commission thank you I'll make a motion to approve the adver advertising of um the Planning Commission member Gabriel Hansen and the tabling of the Eda position one second discussion any further discussion all in favor I opposed none heard passes J all right that's declaring um the mower Surplus I kind of have a issue with the city when something reaches a certain age you guys automatically um say oh it's Surplus we're going to sell this and get a new one I want I'm curious is there really is there something wrong with it where it can't be repaired because we pay people to work on this stuff so um I guess that's my question yep so we have a equipment replacement schedule that's set up the basically budget for replacement of these vehicles we set a specific time frame and then we put aside money each year so that when that time comes for replacement we already have that money saved we don't have to bond we don't have to ask for any more money if the vehicle or equipment does not need to be replaced we keep pushing it out further and further this was originally planned for 2022 um we put some more money into it got three more years out of it in that meantime we still set aside that same amount of money to save up for um it would have been the next purchase so we're saving that money into the budget it's not dollar for dollar because the price of all this stuff goes up each year so we're not actually you know recuperating all that money but uh we do look at everything each time if it needs to be replaced that's when we recommend it it would still work but it also has salvage value right now to resell and one of the benefits we have as a government agency like this mower here I think the price we had was $67,000 the sticker price on it was $992,000 and so we're saving that or as a government agency so when we do sell it back we can capture some of that money as well and it's kind of like there's no set time on these it's kind of like our personal vehicles some people like to replace them every five years some people like to run them till they're in the ground there's no science behind it exactly but this is kind of the the uh formula that we've used and it's worked well in the past what do you expect to get back for it this kind of a smaller Market this is a it's not a lawnmower it's a full-on tractor it's 12 Cuts 12 foot wide path it's a big machine with a diesel engine there's not a large market for it golf courses and large Park Properties um we're kind of thinking somewhere between 10 and $20,000 on the old one we've been surprised in the past where we've gotten a lot more than that but um I can't say for sure on a bid not an auction um where do they use this particular one at is it just our park or do they do ditches and uh yep so this one's used for all of our city-owned property so we do all of our parks with it this is kind of our workhouse Workhorse mower um it's used every day that we're mowing it does all of our Parks it does the sandel parkway we maintain that right now until that gets developed for um we mow that roundabout area and along there so it looks nice for them for the city right now uh we do uh like by the ice arena the the road along there so there is some roadside mowing with it but it's mainly parks and grounds that we use it for all day every day during the growing season it's all pretty much running okay with that I'm going to make a motion to approve item J and K of the consent agenda oh I got K oh just I did too but okay with Just J then second pass second all in favor I I post unheard that passes K uh item K the purchase of the mo I'm fine with that I just had the question of what our uh bidding process is do we bid local uh for example plow world and pet Small Engines um if they have the state contract we do most of the stuff is purchased on a Statewide contract so only one manufacturer will have the contract for it a lot of times the local businesses will match they can get us the state contract price was what they kind of say but uh yeah we've we've looked at plow world for um they have uh some of the snow plow stuff there our Western white outs we've bought stuff from them in the past Pats hasn't had any um State contract stuff so far okay so we do look at our local vendors yeah we try and give you a local to just for getting parts it makes it a lot easier too John here seems to be kind of close and nian and Ham Lake for getting parts but you're kind of paying for that too so okay that was my question with that I'll make motion to approve item K second second okay we have a first and a second on that all in favor I opposed none said passes um M or l i mean l um that's mine the Hidden Prairie Elementary preliminary plat extension I I'm just curious um if we wanted them to deny this extension what what's the process they have to go back through and where is this actually I tried to figure it out I this is right across right down there by 199th in East Beth Boulevard oh yeah yeah it's Mr Mayor and council members it's not uncommon for people to seek extensions on these things um if you were to deny it they would have to start at Ground Zero go all the way through what what they've already done they probably wouldn't change anything you know so it would just be kind of redundancy but um they're trying to work with a local land owner to you know get accesses and that sort of thing taken care of and and um and they hope to as as indicated here hope to have it resolved by Springtime which is later than the February time frame or would expire in February so this is just um helping them out with an extension essentially I'm all for helping people um with that I'm approve item L of the consent agenda make motion second okay we have all in favor I I opposed none heard that m l passes um e item one item 8.0 E1 this is the 2025 joint Powers agreement for Street Maintenance project um consider approving the listed projects to be bid as part of the 2025 North Metro Street maintenance program jpa Street Maintenance projects uh this is a group of North Metro cities kunon Rapids is is the lead agency in that and uh we participated in this since 2005 or 2008 um we bid all of our projects together to try get uh better prices as a large group we pretty much have done this annually the process is we submit our our amounts to them they put the kunon Rapids puts the bids together it goes out for bid we'll get the bid prices we'll bring that back to the city council to uh for approval they can change the amount at that time they can ra they can add more quantities or they can lower the amount of quantities that we want to pay for this year all we're recommending though is uh Street striping for our pavement markings and I've included map on there and the amount that we're looking for is um 260 thou 260,000 linear feet of pavement markings the estimated cost for that is between 30 and $35,000 based on previous year's pricing we did have $105,000 budgeted for 2025 um the rest of that money we'd like to keep in the in the uh roads capital budget to help with the cost of some of our 2025 overlay projects that will be coming up too so make a motion for approval of the proposed City projects forting as part of 2025 North Metro Street maintenance program G jpa second second okay we have a motion a second any discussion I actually have a question yeah this road is is this Sand Hill Parkway that's being done on here restriped yes yeah what now exactly what does that mean then the yellow and uh white paint on there it's worn off we have to do that every two years just to keep it so it meets the requirements a lot of it been worn out some Trucking traffic on there yeah I think that was striped in 2020 so we're at be four be five year four I think 2021 would be four years this summer so the initial stuff is an epoxy that they put down it lasts a lot longer when we when we redo it it's just pain we get about two years out of it so we do half of the city it's two two different uh groups we do do half this year and we'll do half next year okay yeah thank you yep any other discussion that said all in favor I I opposed motion passes item E2 this is the 2025 class 5 Gravel Road reserving project in 2006 the city began a six-year cycle of gravel road resurfacing for our 14.5 miles of unpaved Roads within our system the cycle allows up to five of our 30 gravel roads to be overlaid with new material each year on the rotation sequence $40,000 was budgeted for Gravel Road resurfacing in 2025 the costs for these projects are for material and delivery the public works department conducts the grading compaction and finishing of the material prior to the placement of any new class 5 material public work step will reclaim the shoulders and reshape the existing surface um I listed the projects we did last year in 2024 and then the second grouping there is the ones we're proposing for 2025 we're also recommending another application of chloride on Klondike Drive and then based on previous year's bid pricing and estimated cost for the chloride we should have enough in our $40,000 budget to uh get this done and then here again once we get the bid the quotes back we'll bring those back to council for approval at that time too so you'll see this again before it actually project goes forward you have a motion I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 class 5 Gravel Road resurfacing project second okay discussion will that motion cover the chloride yes yeah okay any other discussion all those in favor I opposed motion passes staff report Mr Mayor we have uh one item there under um uh 8.0 G1 uh which is a union negotiation process and timeline discussion essentially staff is seeking Direction on how the city council would like to proceed with the 2026 to 2028 Union negotiation process there's three different options um that we can that we can uh utilize uh we can continue with past practice where myself along with the finance director and Public Works manager initiate facilitate negotiations with the city and the union and uh after such uh you know the essentially put together a proc an agreement and uh agreement is reached and presented to the council uh you can have the city administrator along with City personnel committee initiate and facilitate negotiation between the city and the union um and after meeting with the Union and we would put together proposal continuing this process until an agreement is reached the third um option was somewhat alluded to by the prior Council in terms of Outsourcing the entire negotiation process to a third party or the City attorney essentially there was a kind of a belief that whatever was negotiated in terms of an increase for the union would be given to the non-union so you're kind of negotiating your own increases um I'm not sure that that'll be so much of an issue this time primarily we're going to have a a tough negotiation I think this time a lot of uh contracts have gone up dramatically uh more so than the average amount so it may be the type of situation where you want a professional negotiator in on a situation like this um but again there's options for you and um if you want to kind of discuss uh here this evening which one is the preference of the council we can can direct staff and we'll we'll start that process what have we done in the past in the past uh we have um uh let me see here historically staff included myself Finance director not myself but the prior administrator Finance director Public Works manager have met with the Union Stewart and Union agent to facilitate the negotiation process ratified eventually by the union and the city council so again it was it was thr out there was kind of the idea that you know the non-union folks are negotiating their salary increase you know but it's up to the the council to decide now are you are they still going into close session to discuss the what they come back to or it is it all out here it's in Clos officially it's been cool session I've not I've not been part of it I'm going to be honest with you Nate you've been part of it you yeah my my role in the past was basically just the management side of things if they had items that were uh on call time things like that the pay itself was basically the city administrator and the city council and they would kind of go back and forth between you guys in close session yep and who is on the city's Personnel committee who does that consist of it changed this year so I'm I believe I I think it's mayor and Jim I think and Jim Smith NOP okay Anderson Smith so what about a combination of number one and number two using the Personnel committee and I I think the finance director needs to be part of it because he's the expert in uh uh finances he knows what the numbers are like on the top of his head and of course the city administrator has to be part of it but I think um maybe some council members which would be the Personnel committee that's what that would be my opinion so you want combine one and two yes Mr Mayor and council members uh the way that we did it at the county was the electeds did not get involved at all it was negotiated by an attorney it was brought forward to them to be ratified by the by the board right or wrong that's just the way uh they did it I recall um that it wasn't the electeds and Ramsey either when I served there but certainly it's it's up to you folks how you want to handle it I honestly just don't want to pay extra to have this done that's my my thing I understand any other discussions thoughts one thing I will say about hiring a professional that's negotiated these before is they kind of know what other Union Agreements are so let's say somebody asks for something they say well you know they settled over here for this you know so you have that leveraging power um that uh that we may not have we may be at a disadvantage with that but what do you know what the additional cost would be I don't it'd be based on an hourly know how much time it takes to to negotiate it how much time do we have before we need to make a decision on this can we do it by say next council meeting yeah when's the contract actually up uh December 31st so we have all year to essentially so we want it budget yeah historically we we um yeah we want to establish it before the budget but historically it's always been started beginning of the year given enough time to work through um last thing you want to do is rush it because then you know uh you may not get an outcome that you want so well it sounds like we need a little bit more information about the third option if we'd wish to go that way depending on what the cost would be um can you do a work up on what it would cost for uh having uh City attorney or uh expert negotiator come in and compare that cost to what it may cost of having the city administrator and the public uh a finance director and Public Works manager do that whether they'd be salaried or if it'd be additional cost so that we can kind of compare apples to apples on pricing yep Eric you do you understand that kind of stuff I I was president of the Union involved in uh four negotiations that I led on behalf of the union and uh and then we have two attorneys in our office who provide such services for um our Our member clients um cities but those are larger cities um so I have seen it used as cities the size of East bethl usually kind of targeted on uh one particular collective bargaining agreement that for whatever reason is you know difficult or material I've also seen that generally you may want to take that major one that kind that kind of sets the standard and the template for the others and that's another approach uh to take so the there are various flexible options to to maybe consider and uh I can certainly talk with your city administrator and try to essentially provide that additional information for you to make that inform decision well I'm assuming you're going to look at it anyway correct I always look at the collective bargaining agreement at the at the end um I I I look at all of your contracts before you approve them here um sometimes it's difficult because the only time I see him sometimes is when I get the packet but uh you have good staff so there's only been a few times where all of a sudden I go oo I wish I had seen that before um but uh yeah I guess that's a long answer to I sorry your question which is yes I look at them all before you approve in the long run it still cost you no either way you go s because if you're taking the city administrator and the finance director away from their current jobs you're adding more taking that valued time away yeah that's why I asked to put something together for what that cost would be and we can compare Mr Mayor and Council I think we can we can handle that if that's what you'd like us to do it's you know within our normal uh daily work um the the part that that I'm a little concerned about what I alluded to earlier is kind of knowing the lay of the land what contracts have been approved out there you know kind of know what you're dealing with and and if you're if you're working with it day in and day out you know you you have a pretty good feeling what that is we wouldn't know what that is so I'm going to make a motion to table this item see do we need motion on this or this just uh yeah informative no you can you can make a motion to table and direct staff to come back with um comparable pricing okay I'm making a motion to table item 80 G1 so staff will come back with a comparative analysis on pricing second and expectations okay we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I opposed none said and passes Council reports Jim Eric can you uh please explain the difference between uh a strong mayor system and a weak mayor system um just the meaning okay so yeah that that's actually a lot of times o overstated and so forth um and really people talk about a strong mayor system and a and a weak mayor system and usually there's there's really kind of a Middle Road too that's that's in between so let me deal with the weak the the the the week is the the mayor who um is more of this basic propaganda figurehead uh is out there to be the the the promotional face on behalf of of of of the city um and and their power is at best the same as the city council just a single vote but they don't have any other additional uh uh Powers the strong mayor system is one that has uh and interestingly enough usually doesn't even sit on the council although can but what their role is to really act as like the city manager um uh they're full-time almost always they uh appoint it's not the council that that that appoints maybe the council will have approval of those par particular departments but it is but each one of the department heads or directors as well as the you know staff and everyone underneath and so forth is serving at the pleasure of not the council serving at the pleasure of the mayor so now you can see where that is like the CEO right um so I I wanted to deal with the weak and the strong so then you understand that we also have Marl type of systems that are in between East bethl is a weak miror system correct I would put it more towards the weak okay but but I wouldn't say it is the absolute weak but it certainly is not that CEO okay thank you appreciate that then uh I want to address uh you Mr Mayor on the comments you made at your first meeting on my role liaison for the fire department it's crucial that we base our dis discussions and facts and maintain a respectful dialogue that prior prioritizes well-being of our community in our dedicated public servants I feel the comments made by you mayor fell way short and need correction you Mr Mayor claimed that the fire department has kind of toxic with me as liaison blaming the toxicity on me seriously where did you get your facts for this comment I went back through Jerry strike's report and I could not find the word toxic anywhere first I want to acknowledge the concerns raised in the recent efficiency report while some firefighters have expressed feelings supported by City leadership other have voiced about perceived micromanagement it is important to note that concerns highlight a need for improved communication and collaboration which I've offered from day one not toxicity nowhere in the report was there an indication of toxic environment created by the liaison nowhere in the report Sayes it ever mentioned not once the liazon was toxic or created toxic environment I find the statement made by you Mr Mayor disrespectful falsified comment that you made that create a toxic environment on our Council in my opinion as your liaison I have consistently prioritized open Communications with the fire department meeting with the fire chief immediately after being assigned to Liaison position and offering 247 availability to address any issues and concerns which numerous firefighters have used I have advocated for increased pay funding to recognize the invaluable contributions of our volunteer firefighters and was told by the chief the firefighters don't need any money I totally disagreed with this statement by the chief I have requested more detailed budget proposals to ensure transparency and accountability while looking for options to fund this request I think it's worth noting that the report mentions some feel they are micromanaged by Council and some say I am less engaged the role of liaison is to communicate coordinate collaborate with the parties involved even though I have a full-time job I will not be able to make all the meetings the fire department meetings fall on Monday nights as you're aware of and uh I urge you mayor to take back your statement because it wasn't factual we have some issues that the report clearly identified with the fire department and it is up to us to ensure that our firefighters have the proper resources support they need from us and residents to serve our community effectively your false statements and reason regarding the change does not help anything to achieve any goals RS I appreciate your comments that's all I got Tim I'm good thank you uh Planning Commission for tomorrow night has been cancelled and that's all I have just want to make that announcement Susan I just wanted to say I read that article and um I thought it was illegal for us to make comments like that to public news sources so I'd like the attorney to address that because if I went to a newspaper and wanted to make some negative comments about other council members or the attorney or the city administrator would I not get in trouble for that mayor council members um I want to be very clear that uh first amendment allows individuals to say whatever they want there may be civil liabilities that arise from that um but that's up between uh other individuals with respect to how they're affected on that as well but uh no u i i or this Council cannot uh basically prohibit anyone from speaking their mind um those individuals just will have to leave live with consequen of uh of their speech that's the way it works in the United States thank you got I have not read this article and as far as I'm concerned it's same as what was in the minute so there's nothing extra in it so one second mayor I I would like to hand in um um a guideline and instruct our staff to take a look at putting together a barn dominium ordinance here in East beo that is written out to serve as a guide to help staff and maybe we can get that into the next work meeting and or future meetings in the near future can you speak in your mic please I can't hear you yes I turned in a barndominium guide that we can get into uh possibly the next work meeting or one of the next meetings to take a look at allowing barndominiums uh in East bethl and what it's going to take thanks Mr Mayor and Council I will say that I've already brought this up to Kendra so she's aware of uh your interest in this and I will pass this on to her and add it to whatever work she's been doing on that on that uh ordinance change already so thank you and Mr Mayor just have a couple of items I want to I want to mention this evening um first of all the board of appeals training I know that council member Miller has finished his this is the last week that we can do that so if one more or possibly two more I think had indicated an interest in doing that you have one week left to get that completed uh the local board of appeals is scheduled for April 28th um tentatively and uh and that of course is an opportunity for the public to come in and to ask questions regarding how their properties are valued and um and the the county Alex guggenberger will be here to help um sort those values out if there's any questions on that I know a lot of people are kind of shocked at where values are um I think buyers are shocked where values are uh the uh the Market's gone kind of crazy on on a lot of certainly commercial industrial um residential's kind of uh been a little flat um this last year uh I think it's a lot less than it was before but um but anyways that's an evening that's an opportunity for folks to to raise those questions if they have them on so far scheduled April 28th and then I also wanted to mention we've got one property I spoke with Nate on this um 455 Forest Road it's a uh condemned property there is a um sign on it from the county uh that it's been tax forfeited in the last legislative session uh there were changes to tax forfeited properties and Counties have to sell these properties this property will be going up for auction it is uh needs to to be Dem demoed certainly and is unsafe so the county will be securing that I got a call from one resident mayor and you may have gotten that call as well uh but they'll try and be securing it the county does not take the property down um but it is um unsafe to be there and um and so hopefully with the sale of this conditioned on the sale of course the new buyer will need to to go through the process of demolition on that property but uh that's down on um down by the lake and um someone might be interested in purchasing that at auction so any R uh that is all I have unless there's questions I have a question has a resident of that property come forward at all or said anything complained anything like that the owner of the property yes the property was tax forfeited the county acts as the agent of the state so um the neighbor has complained about it because I mean the the roof is gaving in and things are things are in very very bad shape so okay our concern from the city Side of course is children playing and something like that or you know the dangers associated with that so I contacted the county today and said hey we got to get we got to get some people out here you guys are kind of the trustees of this if you will and um and uh so I know that they're they're going to be pushing to to get this one on auction right away away and get it disposed of in terms of someone owning it and taking care of it so is there is is there an auction time set yet um I don't recall if they've set the exact time yet I can get back to you on that um they they published the auction times they publish the properties and uh so all that's a matter of public record but I do know that it's it's coming up here pretty soon pretty soon so is that just a regular C Small  Lake lot or is it bigger or do you know anything about it I think it's a double lot it's pretty standard size for  Lake Beach area yeah it's just south of smokies on Forest Road oh okay oh I think I know which one so at any rate just want to make folks aware of that and happy bidding any thank you nothing else I'll make motion toour second have a motion and a second all in favor I I meeting's closed everybody ready to go into this one H pull it up here like to open the January 27th make